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Comment by socalgal2 | Hacker News Reader

I'm sypathetic but ... unlike cars, bikes don't have large each to read license plates. People will scream about facial recognition. I'm not trying to take away your freedom. I've just wished they'd enforce traffic laws on cyclists but it's just not going to happen and cyclists know it so they almost all break traffic laws with impunity.

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You know who generally stops at a stop sign or stoplight? People on an e-bike, compared to people riding for sport or commuting on road bikes. It's not a big deal to stop and get started again when you have a motor. It's a pain in the ass when you're trying to make it to work on time with your legs.

Why is having a license plate even relevant here? Most traffic enforcement is done when an officer sees something happen.

How else will a witness be able to report the get-away bike in a bank robbery?

‘He’s is on a bike carrying 7 large sacks of cash’.

You know what happens when a cyclist is involved in a traffic accident they cause? They might get hurt or cause some minor property damage. When the driver of a car is at fault they kill other people, so I'm not too worried about even negligent bike riders causing an accident.

We recently had a funeral for people killed in an accident that was not caused by the car driver. When cars and bikes share the same space, it might be an impact with a car that kills somebody, but that impact might be the result of a chain of actions initiated by a bicyclist.

Drivers are actually not supposed to crash into people, regardless of where they are. If you can't react fast enough to the situation around you while driving a car, you were driving too fast, full stop.

Don't victim blame.

False. If you jump in front of a car who has the right of way and is not speeding it's not the driver's fault. The victum in this case is the driver who has done nothing wrong. The perp is the person who broke the law and faces the consequences.

"Not speeding" doesn't matter. Going below the speed limit does not give you a license to run people over.

The victim is the one who's injured or dead.

Must be nice to live in a world simpler than the one I do. Your broad generalization has so many deficiencies that I actually deleted what I was writing. There are countless exceptions to your hasty generalization.

If that's how you want to redefine the term, sure, ok. But the "victim" in this particular scenario is the one at fault.

Sure, if you commit suicide you're a victim of yourself

You seem to be unwilling to assign blame to the operator of hazardous machinery for running people over. Why is that? "They should know better"? Kids? Disabled people unable to use their mobility devices on the unplowed sidewalks? Animals?

If you cannot control yourself enough to slow down around people, you need to get out of the driver's seat. If you cannot stop before a potential crash, you were going too fast. 100% of the time. It literally does not matter if someone jumps in front of you. If you're going to choose the statistically most violent mode of transportation by multiple orders of magnitude, that is your responsibility.

As a pedestrian I find your analysis a bit myopic... but on par for far too many cyclists.

Large license plates don't prevent cars from regularly breaking traffic laws. The percentage of cyclists who come to a complete stop at all stop signs and red lights is higher than the percentage of drivers who strictly follow the speed limit.

License plates do not seem to prevent dangerous and illegal behavior in cars, why should they help for bikes?

I can stand at any corner in any city in the USA and count the percent of cars that stop vs the percent of bikes that stop. Bikes about 1 of 10 will stop. Cars at least 4 of 5 will stop. So, cyclists, 10% compiliance. car drivers, 80% compliance.

As for license plates, I'd like both cars and bikes to obey the law. The only way I see that happening is cameras and scanners. For that to stop bikes requires the bikes to also have plates.

Unclear what you traffic scenario you are referring to, but in some localities (such as WA state) it is legal for bikes to roll through stop signs in certain scenarios. This makes sense considering a bike’s speed, its rider’s engagement, and the overall difficulty of killing a pedestrian with a bike (compared to a vehicle).

The difference is of course that cyclists mostly endanger themselves where as cars mostly endanger others.

Cars and bikes behave differently, that’s not surprising. If you spend any time in traffic you will see many cars speeding and leaving enough space.

Now do one for speed limit compliance.

License plates absolutely prevent dangerous and illegal behavior in cars, just not 100% of it.

It's hilarious to see all the responses that are effectively "others break the law more!"

The license plate issue is that cities can, and are, adding more and more license plate scanners to catch cars. Those won't work for bicycles and ebikes (who drive like cyclists) unless they require license plates on bikes/ebikes and enforce. Yes, and enforce more on cars too.

Japan has bicycles with license plates. It's clearly possible.

They don't have license plates, they have mandatory registration stickers. You can't read it unless you look closely at the sticker while the bike is stopped. It's to identify owners of stolen bikes, not identifying running bikes.

To be clear, when the OP wrote "Japan has bicycles with license plates", it is important to clarify the term "bicycle". It would more accurate to say "motorized bicycle". If you ride something that looks like a bicycle where you can power it only with a throttle button (no pedalling required), then it requires a license plate, at least in Tokyo. Explanation here: https://www.city.inagi.tokyo.jp/en/kurashi/zeikin/1002693/10...

Also, you can ask Google AI for more sources and info using this prompt:

    japan when does a bike require a license plate?

Alright, a moped requires a plate. That's not a bike.

And I don't need to ask AI, I used an e-bike (without a licence plate) last week in Tokyo.

    > I used an e-bike (without a licence plate) last week in Tokyo.

Did you (1) need to pedal to get assistance, or (2) could you get power with a throttle button only? If #2, then you were breaking the law. It seems like police are not yet enforcing. In neighborhoods with a lot of "night life", I see this often with host-looking dudes. I expect 6-12 months after the law is activated, police will begin to crack down. (This is a pretty normal pattern when introducing new traffics laws in Japan.)

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